Marketing American Indie in the shadow of Hollywood

This chapter examines the marketing of a small number of exemplar indie films. Two words dominate film marketing in terms of overarching categorization: arthouse and mainstream. The chapter focuses on American indie films that proved popular among wider audiences than those gained by many others, examining some of the signaling devices used in positioning them to the consumer. It draws on the film brandscape theory and the concept of illegitimacy discount in order to unpack the complexity of marketing experiential products such as film to audiences that have an abundance of alternatives. The US film industry has gone through a series of historical changes that have impacted upon the spheres of financing, marketing, and distribution. Films within the indie category are produced within specific production contexts, separate from, or perhaps alongside, the mainstream of Hollywood. Actors, directors, scriptwriters and so on can have “brand associations” in the minds of consumers, based on previous consumption experiences.